Computerized inspection of gear tooth surfaces

An approach is proposed that uses coordinate measurements of the real surface of spiral bevel gears to determine the actual machine tool setting applied during the gear manufacturing process. The deviations of the real surface from the theoretical one are also determined. Adjustments are then applied by machine tool corrections to minimize these surface deviations. This is accomplished by representing the real surface analytically in the same Gaussian coordinates as the theoretical surface

Entropic phase separation of linked beads

We study theoretically a model system of a transient network of microemulsion droplets connected by telechelic polymers and explain recent experimental findings. Despite the absence of any specific interactions between either the droplets or polymer chains, we predict that as the number of polymers per drop is increased, the system undergoes a first order phase separation into a dense, highly connected phase, in equilibrium with dilute droplets, decorated by polymer loops. The phase transition is purely entropic and is driven by the interplay between the translational entropy of the drops and the configurational entropy of the polymer connections between them. Because it is dominated by entropic effects, the phase separation mechanism of the system is extremely robust and does not depend on the particlular physical realization of the network. The discussed model applies as well to other polymer linked particle aggregates, such as nano-particles connected with short DNA linkers

The Caffeine Dose Response in Habitual Consumers Performing a Maximal Anaerobic Test

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Feedup, feedback, and feedforward in curve mid-air 3D gestures

Issuing a mid-air gesture in a three-dimensional space intrinsically suffers for the lack of explicit direct representation of the gesture with which guidance and feedback can be offered. To address this challenge, we decompose the feedback problem into three components: feedup to constantly represent the goal of the gestural task, feedback to respond to what the end user already did related to the initial goal, and feedforward to modify the representation towards the ultimate goal before terminating the gesture production. We exemplify these three components with case studies representing three levels of complexity of Curve Mid-Air 3D Gestures produced in three environments

Effects of Intermittent Caffeine Ingestion on Aerobic Power During a 16.1K Cycling Time Trial

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Evaluation of the CELL-DYN® 3500 haematology instrument for the analysis of the mouse and rat blood

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the CELL-DYN® 3500 for rat and mouse blood analysis in a routine environment. The WBC (white blood cells), RBC (red blood cells), PLT (platelets) counts and the WBC differential were determined. In addition, the following aspects were studied: within-run precision, day-to-day precision, biasfree paired difference precision; extended ranges of linearity for RBC, HCT (haematocrit), WBC, PLT; carry-over, the fffect of blood ageing, cell stability with different anticoagulants; and the normal ranges, the out of range flagging and some typical pathology cases. The CELL-DYN® 3500 is a multiparameter flow cytometer which counts and differentiates WBC, based on the principle of multi-angle polarised light scatter separation. RBC and PLT are determined by the impedance method. The WBC count is evaluated by both, optical and impedance methods. Reference methods used were according to the ICSH recommendations on blood cell analysis, including manual counts of WBC and platelets, a centrifugal microhaematocrit method and a haemoglobin measurement by spectrophotometry using the WHO haemoglobin standard. All cell counts were compared with the results obtained by our routine blood cell analyser (Contraves AL820), and the WBC differential was compared with the manual microscopic differentiation of the 400 WBC (200 cells differentiated by two technicians). The following coefficients of variation were obtained: within-run precision was 1.2% and 2.7% for WBC; 1.0% and 1.0% for RBC; 1.3% and 0.9% for haematocrit; 2.1% and 2.7% for platelets (rats and mice respectively). Day-to-day precision was performed using human trilevel control blood, and the CVs were found to be <1.7% for WBC, <1.4% for RBC, <1.2% for haemoglobin and <6.3% for platelets. The following ranges of measurement were found to be linear in the rat: WBC: 0.10-20.20×103/μl; RBC: 0.016-14.3×106/μl; haemoglobin: 0.08-26.8 g/dl; haematocrit: 5.0%-77%; platelets: 14.0-1670.0×103/μl. Equal ranges were observed for mouse blood. Carry-over in rat blood was found to be 0.12% for WBC, 0.05% for RBC, 0.15% for haemoglobin and 0.46% for platelets. In mice, similar carry-over results were obtained. The correlation coefficients (Pearson, correlation coefficient) between the CELL-DYN® 3500 and Contraves AL 820 using linear regression analysis were as follows: 0.988 and 0.997 for WBC; 0.986 and 0.920 for RBC; 0.995 and 0.984 for haemoglobin; 0.958 and 0.85 for haematocrit; 0.958 and 0.963 for platelets, for rats and mice, respectively. Correlation coefficients between the CELL-DYN® 3500 and the manual differential of NEU (neutrophils) and LYM (lymphocytes) were higher than 0.8 in rats and higher than 0.9 in mice. Due to the relatively low absolute counts of MONO (monocytes), EOS (eosinophils) and BASO (basophils), only moderate correlation of methods was found. The CELL-DYN® 3500 was judged to be reliable, accurate and easy-to-use for counting and identifying normal and most of the pathological blood specimens obtained from mice and rats. By using the CELL-DYN® 3500, the time for blood sample analysis can be shortened significantly and provides extensive opportunities to characterise pathological sample

Fusionless surgery in early-onset scoliosis

AbstractBackgroundSurgical treatment of early-onset scoliosis has greatly developed in recent years. Early-onset scoliosis covers a variety of etiologies (idiopathic, neurologic, dystrophic, malformative, etc.) with onset before the age of 5 years. Progression and severity threaten respiratory development and may result in respiratory failure in adulthood. Many surgical techniques have been developed in recent years, aiming to protect spinal and thoracic development.Material and methodsPresent techniques are based on one of two main principles. The first consists in posterior distraction of the spine in its concavity (single growing rod, or vertical expandable prosthetic titanium rib [VEPTR]), or on either side (dual rod); this requires iterative surgery, for lengthening, unless motorized using energy provided by a magnetic system. The second option is to use spinal growth force to lengthen the assembly; these techniques (Luque Trolley, Shilla), using a sliding assembly, are known as growth guidance.ResultsThese techniques are effective in controlling early scoliotic deformity, and to some extent restore spinal growth. However, they show a high rate of complications: infection, rod breakage, spinal fixation pull out and, above all, progressive spinal stiffness, reducing long-term efficacy. Respiratory gain is harder to assess, as thoracic expansion does not systematically improve respiratory function, particularly due to impaired compliance of the thoracic cage

Hepatitis C viral evolution in genotype 1 treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients receiving telaprevir-based therapy in clinical trials

Background: In patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C infection, telaprevir (TVR) in combination with peginterferon and ribavirin (PR) significantly increased sustained virologic response (SVR) rates compared with PR alone. However, genotypic changes could be observed in TVR-treated patients who did not achieve an SVR. Methods: Population sequence analysis of the NS3•4A region was performed in patients who did not achieve SVR with TVR-based treatment. Results: Resistant variants were observed after treatment with a telaprevir-based regimen in 12% of treatment-naïve patients (ADVANCE; T12PR arm), 6% of prior relapsers, 24% of prior partial responders, and 51% of prior null responder patients (REALIZE, T12PR48 arms). NS3 protease variants V36M, R155K, and V36M+R155K emerged frequently in patients with genotype 1a and V36A, T54A, and A156S/T in patients with genotype 1b. Lower-level resistance to telaprevir was conferred by V36A/M, T54A/S, R155K/T, and A156S variants; and higher-level resistance to telaprevir was conferred by A156T and V36M+R155K variants. Virologic failure during telaprevir treatment was more common in patients with genotype 1a and in prior PR nonresponder patients and was associated with higher-level telaprevir-resistant variants. Relapse was usually associated with wild-type or lower-level resistant variants. After treatment, viral populations were wild-type with a median time of 10 months for genotype 1a and 3 weeks for genotype 1b patients. Conclusions: A consistent, subtype-dependent resistance profile was observed in patients who did not achieve an SVR with telaprevir-based treatment. The primary role of TVR is to inhibit wild-type virus and variants with lower-levels of resistance to telaprevir. The complementary role of PR is to clear any remaining telaprevir-resistant variants, especially higher-level telaprevir-resistant variants. Resistant variants are detectable in most patients who fail to achieve SVR, but their levels decline over time after treatment